In his short life, former ABC television anchorman Max Robinson admitted having many problems: alcohol abuse, racial struggles, career disaster and three failed marriages. But he never publicly acknowledged having the disease that would end his life. Yet in his death at 49, Robinson had his family reveal that he had AIDS so that others in the black community would be alerted to the dangers of the disease and the need for treatment and education.

April 28, 1989 | KAREN NEWELL YOUNG, Karen Newell Young is a regular contributor to Orange County Life

It happens every spring. The weather warms up. The clothing racks begin to bloom with swimsuits and thoughts turn to that depressing chore: choosing what to wear in the water. Mature women often find slim pickings. The tops are low-cut, the bottoms are high-cut and a hankie would hide more than some of the suits. Little strings tied together are designed more for perfect bodies in repose than older women who want to go swimming. Faced with such skimpy choices, some women just stayed out of the water.

It was supposed to be a brief stop at the Primadonna casino, 43 miles south of Las Vegas, but one poker game led to another. By 3 a.m. May 25, 1997, Jeremy Strohmeyer and David Cash were tired of hanging around the arcade, waiting for David's dad. Bored, the two 18-year-olds decided to urinate on two coin-operated games. David chose Big Bertha, whose polka-dot dress flared when players hurled balls into her gaping red mouth. Jeremy selected a helicopter game. Then a wall socket.

Kelly Jackson decided to keep it a secret. Rather than spoil the surprise, he would let his mother, who lives in Kansas City, see the Coke commercial herself. "So she called," Jackson said, "and she asked me, 'Were you on television?' and I was like, 'Well, yeah, I was.' And she said, 'Were you drinking a Coke?' And I said, 'Yeah, I was.' And she was just so happy."

Malls composed of factory outlet stores hit the East Coast in the '70s, and grew rapidly until now there are 270 nationwide. But it has taken a while for this concept to make its way to Southern California. Fear of being too near major retailers in metropolitan areas has kept these malls in outlying areas. San Ysidro, Monterey, Gilroy and Vacaville have outlet malls and one is opening this summer in Cabazon.

Playing private detective for a day, state Sen. Tom Hayden's staff captured Gov. Pete Wilson's director of fish and game and one of his top deputies on videotape as they fished during business hours last week with a lawyer who is trying to loosen the state's endangered species protection laws.

The Dodgers will celebrate their 100th anniversary season without the most celebrated pitcher in franchise history, as Sandy Koufax confirmed Tuesday that he has severed his ties with the organization. Koufax, a Hall of Fame member who served as a minor league pitching instructor since 1979, said he has resigned because he is weary of the job. Although Dodger officials called it a one-year sabbatical, Koufax said he has placed no time frame on the resignation.

The Clinton Administration on Thursday officially recognized Ernesto Zedillo as Mexico's next president, as Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen delivered a congratulatory letter to the "President-Elect of the United Mexican States" along with an invitation for Zedillo to visit the White House in the fall. Zedillo won the most votes in Mexico's hard-fought presidential election Aug. 21, but he will not be named president-elect until after the new Mexican Congress meets Nov. 1. to ratify the results.

The news accounts, now 70 years old, offer only fragments of the "ghastly drama" that surrounded the marriage of Mary Kenan Flagler Bingham, "the richest woman in America." She was the widow of Standard Oil co-founder Henry Flagler and her estate was worth between $60 million and $100 million. Her bridegroom was Judge Robert Worth Bingham, a Kentucky lawyer without independent means. Their wedding in 1916 made headlines, even in New York. And so did her mysterious death eight months later.

Everybody's got it, almost everybody experiences it, but there's not much agreement in San Diego County on how to teach it to our children. Sex. How do public schools teach a subject that is steeped in personal, parental and religious values, but which most people believe, according to public opinion polls, should be taught in the classroom? When it comes to math, there's little discrepancy among school districts about what skills to teach at what levels.